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Smart Stadiums – Mini Smart Cities

Whether it’s a championship football game, a pop concert, or
an auto race, stadiums are massive structures that offer larger than life
experiences for fans. Delivering an unforgettable experience is something every
stadium wants…as long as it’s in the good way. The key to this is a fast, stable,
and secure internet connection that allows for as many selfies as fans want to
upload.

Stadiums have structural challenges for connectivity, but
they also provide tremendous opportunity once that connectivity is in place. Concession
marketing can be connected to drive fans to areas with the most food. HD
cameras with facial recognition can provide security during the event and
ability to search the crowd, in case of a threatening situation. This means
higher bandwidth to support the tidal wave of internet use that occurs at a
game.

CommScope has coverage systems in 24 of the 31 professional
football stadiums in the US. This includes the systems for five out of the last
eight venues that hosted NFL Super Bowls. A few of the highlighted venues are AT&T
Stadium (home of the Dallas Cowboys), Bank
of America Stadium (home to the Carolina Panthers) and NRG Stadium (home of the Houston Texans).
For AT&T Stadium and the 2010 Super Bowl, CommScope provided the stadium
with a multi-carrier, multi-service solution supporting fans, essential
communications, and state of the art media needs. This new infrastructure
required more than five million feet of CommScope copper and fiber cabling,
enough to stretch from Dallas to Chicago! This system supports all carriers as
a true neutral host providing coverage with AT&T, Verizon, Sprint,
T-Mobile, and MetroPCS. For NRG Stadium,
the new infrastructure consists of 783 antennas placed strategically throughout
the stadium to provide greatly increased capacity and allow more bandwidth for
sharing photos, texting, and downloading content, not only in the stadium, but
also in tailgating and parking areas.

And it’s not just football stadiums. CommScope supplied
fiber and copper cables to provide network bandwidth and communications
solutions for Daytona
International Speedway’s motorsports stadium and the Sacramento
Kings worked with CommScope to increase Wi-Fi and bandwidth to build a next
generation-ready sports and entertainment complex for their professional men’s
basketball team.

CommScope can help make future stadiums function as mini
smart cities. Much like a connected city, this includes getting fans to and
from the game with ease. A connected stadium could monitor parking availability
and alert fans which lots were full and direct them to better locations or
provide alternative options for public transportation, like light rails,
trains, and busses. When traffic is heavy after the game, fans could be
connected with nearby restaurants offering specials giving them a reason to
hang out a bit before heading home, instead of getting frustrated in traffic.
This will create an ecosystem of connected hotels, restaurants, and
transportation making every event one to remember: the ultimate fan experience.

About the Author

Melissa Strait

Melissa Strait is an executive assistant for the Office of CTO at CommScope. She has 10 years of experience in writing about arts, culture and the Twin Cities community and is excited to foray into broadband network solutions and wireless technology. Under her maiden name Slachetka, she held the title of freelance journalist, book reviewer, and newspaper editor until she decided to take the title of “Mrs.” by marrying a graphic designer and starting a family.